March 18, 2014 School Board Meeting Review

Have you ever wondered what the Fox C-6 Superintendent is getting paid to do when you discover that an entire section of the updated Board Policies, Regulations and Forms was left out of the documents?

What's really sad is the fact that the part that was left out of the updated Polices, Regulations and Forms was the section on Employee Performance Evaluations in the Forms section.

I would like to think board member John Laughlin for making a motion to remove Section 4.2 - Approve - Policy/Regulation/Forms Manuals from the Fox's Board of Education agenda at last night's meeting after I spoke to him about the updated Policies and Regulations just prior to the meeting. Board member Steve Holloway seconded the motion. The BOE then voted to approve removing it from the agenda for last night's meeting.

I told Mr. Laughlin prior to the meeting that the community had not been properly informed that the updated policies had been posted on the district website for review. Superintendent Critchlow didn't tweet or post anything on the News page after the February BOE meeting to notify the public that the documents were available for public to review and to make recommendations on them. So thank you to Mr. Laughlin and Mr. Holloway for removing the approval from the agenda at last night's meeting.

The section that was left out of the All Forms document was Section 4600 - Performance Evaluation. It was listed in the FORMS - Table of Contents on the Missouri Consultants for Education website where the public can download Fox's latest DRAFT copy of Fox's updated Board Policies, Regulations and Forms. You will need to download the ALL FORMS PDF document from the Missouri Consultants for Education website in order to see that Section 4600 is completely missing from the All Forms document.

I found the missing Section 4600 in the 2012 draft of the updated Board Policies and Regulations on Fox's Website in the FORMS document. I pulled out Section 4600 and made them available here:

Section 4600 - Employee Performance Evaluation Forms

Section 4610.6 - Superintendent Performance Evaluation Forms

I've also assembled ALL of the updated Policies, Regulations and Forms into a single PDF that you can download and view as a single PDF document. It makes it much easier to search rather than trying to read them in chunks as they have been posted on the MCE website. You can view or download the file from the link below:

2014 Fox C-6 Board Policies, Regulations and Forms for Review

I wanted to highlight the following section from Section 4160.6 - Superintendent Performance Evaluation Forms as I thought the Superintendent's Performance Evaluation forms were very interesting. These forms are used by the Board of Education to review the Superintendent's performance on an annual basis. They are required to complete this by February 1 each year.

Superintendent Performance Evaluation

PURPOSE:

One of the primary responsibilities of the School Board is to evaluate the administrative leadership of the school system. Developing performance standards for administrators can be cost effective, reduce crisis management and set and maintain direction.

The purpose of the evaluation process is to provide both the superintendent and the board with information, which can be used to improve the effectiveness of the chief administrator, improve the quality of the school system and strengthen the relationship between the school board and the superintendent.

The results of the evaluation shall be used by the superintendent to identify and nurture strengths and to provide specific direction for improving performance. The board shall use the results of the evaluation to improve communications, to clarify roles and expectations and to make critical employment decisions regarding the superintendent’s contract.

CONTENT:

The superintendent’s effectiveness shall minimally be evaluated according to these six general areas of responsibility:

1. Instructional Leadership
2. Policy & Governance
3. Communications& Community Relations
4. Organizational Management
5. Human Resources Management
6. Values & Ethics of Leadership

Standard 1: INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP

This standard stresses the superintendent’s performance in leadership through empowering others, visioning, and helping shape school culture in a manner to enhance student performance outcomes.

Performance Indicators:(Do not rate individual indicators. These are listed only to help you think about the standard.)

1. Supervises the development & implementation of effective, research based practices allowing the district’s students to meet or exceed Missouri Performance standards
2. Promotes academic rigor that focuses on learning and excellence for schools
3. Creates and supports a community of learners that empowers others to reach high levels of performance to achieve the school’s vision
4. Models learning for staff and students
5. Promotes and expects a school based climate of tolerance, acceptance and civility
6. Develops, implements, promotes and monitors continuous improvement processes
7. Provides for effective educational services for the at-risk students
8. Establishes instructional strategies that include cultural diversity and differences in learning styles
9. Applies effective methods of providing, monitoring, evaluating and reporting student achievement and uses good research and assessments to improve the learning process.

Standard 2: POLICY AND GOVERNANCE

Working with the board to formulate internal and external district policy, defining mutual expectations of performance with the board and communicate effectively.

Performance Indicators:(Do not rate individual indicators. These are listed only to help you think about the standard.)

1. Implements decisions/policies of the BOE and provides follow-up reports.
2. Responds appropriately to board concerns
3. Informs the BOE of federal and state laws and changes in laws
4. Uses legal counsel in governance and procedures to avoid civil and criminal liabilities
5. Provides regular reports to the BOE on school district transactions
6. Serves as liaison between the BOE and school staff, facilitating communications and representing BOE positions and decisions accurately
7. Review existing policies and procedures and makes recommendations to the BOE for necessary revisions
8. Keeps the BOE abreast guidelines of DESE & U.S. Department of Ed.

Standard 3: COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS

This standard emphasizes the skills necessary to establish effective two-way communications not only with students, staff and parents, but the community as a whole including beneficial relationships with the media. It also stresses responding to community feedback and building community support for the district.

Performance Indicators:(Do not rate individual indicators. These are listed only to help you think about the standard.)

1. Promotes and maintains a positive attitude/climate in the district.
2. Maintains open communications with local police, fire, juvenile, & other governmental entities.
3. Demonstrates effective communication skills (written, verbal and non-verbal contexts, formal and informal settings, large and small group and one-on- one environments)
4. Promotes involvement of all stakeholders to be involved in the development of District programs and services.
5. Understands the role of media in shaping and forming opinions as well as how to work with the media. ("It's all about the summit!")

Standard 4: ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT

This standard requires the superintendent to gather and analyze data for decision making and for making recommendations to the board. It stresses the skills necessary to meet internal and external customer expectations and to effectively allocate resources.

Performance Indicators:

(Do not rate individual indicators. These are listed only to help you think about the standard.)

1. Demonstrates budget management.
2. Ensures that the annual budget is aligned to support the District goals.
3. Develops and monitors long-range plans for school and district technology and information systems, making informed decisions about computer hardware & software,& staff development & training needs.
4. Assesses and recommends facility and capital improvements.
5. Establishes procedures and practices for dealing with emergencies such as weather, threats to the school, student violence and trauma
6. Ensures a process is in place for continuous maintenance of existing facilities are conducive to positive learning
7. Analyzes available instructional resources including applications of technology and assign them in cost effective and equitable manner to enhance student outcomes

Standard 5: HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

This performance standard requires skills in developing and implementing a staff performance-evaluation system. It also requires skills in applying ethical, contractual and legal requirements for personnel selection, development, retention, promotion and dismissal.

Performance Indicators:(Do not rate individual indicators. These are listed only to help you think about the standard.)

1. Keeps the Board informed of personnel issues.
2. Identifies and applies appropriate polices, criteria, and processes for the recruitment, selection, induction, compensation and separation of personnel with attention to issues of equity and diversity.
3. Establishes standards for staff performance, accountability and evaluation.
4. Develop and implement staff development programs to provide on-going education for all staff. Provide training for all staff in the areas of legal concern, including, but not limited to, harassment, discrimination, confidentiality, special education and disciplining of students.
5. Involves staff in assessing, identifying and implementing staff development needs and activities.

Standard 6: VALUES AND ETHICS OF LEADERSHIP

This standard requires the understanding and modeling of appropriate value systems, ethics and moral leadership.

Performance Indicators:

(Do not rate individual indicators. These are listed only to help you think about the standard.)

1. Exhibits ability to work well with individuals and groups.
2. Earns respect among professional colleagues.
3. Manifests a professional code of ethics and demonstrates personal integrity.
4. Expects professional conduct from all staff members.
5. Handles crisis management in a controlled and professional manner.
6. Promotes the establishment of moral and ethical practices in every classroom, every school, and throughout the district.

==============================================================

There's still more to add to this article which I'll do later this evening.

I had the chance to speak with Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitman about his email from last month and the response I sent to him and the school board. I also had the opportunity to speak with a couple of our school board candidates for the April election.

August 2013 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting - More Lies, More Deception and More Willful Blindness!

The August 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting was truly an experience to remember listening to Superintendent Critchlow run through her presentation that she has been giving to the staff around the district. Her presentation was like a "State of the District" address to the board.

Superintendent Critchlow should be complimented as to how well she did in presenting her version of the information. However, accuracy, completeness and honesty is important as well. Giving a letter grade on her presentation could be rated as follows:

Exaggerating the Truth and Enthusiasm - "A+"

Accuracy, Completeness and Honesty - "F"

Exaggerating the Truth and Enthusiasm must be what the Board of Education (BOE) basis their pay raises on for Superintendent Critchlow. You'll want to see how Superintendent Critchlow's salary compares to the superintendent she listened to from North Carolina who is responsible for 75,000 students and 170 schools covering 864 sq. miles compared to Superintendent Critchlow who is responsible for 11,695 students and 19 schools covering 74.03 sq. miles. Click on the link below to listen to her presentation for a better understanding of why Fox C-6 had the 4th Highest Paid School Superintendent in the state of Missouri last year. As you're listening to her presentation, read through the transcript of her presentation below to see what is Fact and what is Fiction in the [red comments]. Much of it is like listening to a fairy tale!

This is one of those articles that you should share with your friends and neighbors within our district.

Listen to Superintendent Critchlow's Presentation

There are many things that she conveniently leaves out of her presentation each year to the BOE. Leaving out key facts gives the "appearance" that things are really great. But without those key facts and without the BOE doing their own research appears to be rewarding our superintendent with much more than she deserves and needs to be called into question by our community. Hopefully more and more people in our community will begin to see how much money is being wasted on her salary for very little return. Being honest with the BOE and the community should be an important part of a superintendent's job.

Shortly into her presentation she touted how much the district's ACT Composite Score has improved since she became the Superintendent. But she failed to point out the fact that the district still ranks in the bottom 25% of the state for the Percentage of Graduates taking the ACT. She missed pointing that fact out last year as well.

She eventually spoke about the recent Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP 5) Scores that were released by Missouri DESE to the public the Friday before the board meeting.

That's when she made the claim that
Fox ranked "The Highest in Jefferson County!"

THAT'S NOT TRUE!!

Fox scored a 92.1%

Festus scored a 96.4%

It's the Superintendent's job to make sure the district is seen in a positive light but not at the expense of making UNTRUE Statements. Her claim stood out like a sore thumb to those of us that knew her statement wasn't true. No one on the board said a thing. No one questioned her false claim that Fox had the Highest Score in Jefferson County. She asked the board if they had seen the article in the Post Dispatch that highlighted our district. If she had read the article, she would have known that Festus scored higher than Fox. So, why would she make such a claim?

Her UNTRUE Statement stood out even more when the school district MSIP 5 Scores and Rankings were published on the front page of the August 29th edition of the Arnold-Imperial Leader newspaper.

As the Superintendent of schools, she continuously reminds everyone that Fox is a National District of Character. According to the District Statement of Commitment to the Character Education Program in our school board policies, "the role of the school is to support the family by upholding the highest example of morality, ethics, and integrity". Shouldn't our Superintendent be setting the example as written in our board policy?

It would seem that lying to the board and to the public contradicts many of the Character Education traits that Fox is teaching to our students such as: Honesty, Integrity, Trustworthy, Responsibility and Respect. As a community, we should be questioning our board as to whether our Superintendent is expected to be Honest, Trustworthy and Responsible to the taxpayers as part of her job especially considering the amount of money that they are paying her.

Does our school board not know the truth?

Is this more Willful Blindness on the part of our school board?

Shouldn't the board hold our Superintendent accountable for her statements?

How many times will she be allowed to deceive the public before she is fired?

If you didn't attend the board meeting you didn't get a chance to hear her presentation or view the slides from her presentation. Her slides weren't included in the board meeting packet as they should have been. My father used to record all school board meetings when he worked for the district and while he served on the school board. The district is no longer doing this. I audio record the board meetings whenever I attend in order to have an accurate depiction of what occurred.

I have asked the board many times over the last several years to record the meetings like they do in other districts. They have never responded to my request. The public needs to know what is really going on in the district and not just the information that the district chooses to document in the board meeting minutes or allow the newspapers to publish.

Another problem that needs to be corrected is the fact that board meeting minutes aren't made available to the public for nearly a month after a meeting. Our school board members should be insisting that draft copies of the board meeting minutes be posted on the district website the same week of a board meeting like they do in other districts. Better yet, post an audio or video recording of our board meetings within a few days of the meeting like they do in other districts. This will keep them from hiding things from the public.

More information about the August 2013 board meeting will be forthcoming as there was a lot of misinformation to cover. The community can review a transcript of our Superintendent's presentation below. You can click on the link below to listen to her presentation in her own words. My comments have been added in red throughout the transcript of her presentation on items that stood out during her presentation.

Listen to Superintendent Critchlow's Presentation

Superintendent Critchlow's Presentation

to the School Board (transcribed)

"If you recall it was either last June or maybe it was May. I can't recall. We talked about how important we believed as a board and as administration that we needed to tackle some items with our staff. Um. In the last week and I think I started, August. I think on the 19th. I've done two or three presentations. If you'll just flip the lights for me Dan. I'm just going to go through you very quickly. What I've been addressing the staff every morning and afternoon. 

OK. So, an overview of the district, where are we now? We all know we're a National District of Character. We've been a Missouri Distinction of Performance for 13 years. The last, the last 11 years it was awarded by DESE and then MASA took over awarding Missouri Distinction of Performance. Our ACT right now is 22.3. [NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH: Critchlow left off of her slide the fact that ONLY 56% of Fox's graduates take the ACT compared to the state average of 74% as listed on DESE's Top 10 by 20 Dashboard (which includes private schools) or the state average of 66% that is listed on DESE's School Report Cards (which only includes public schools). Fox's percentage is so low that Fox ranks in the bottom 25% of the state. Critchlow left this fact off of her slide from last year's presentation as well.] When I came in the office, we were 20.5. [NOT TRUE: According to DESE, Fox had a score of 20.8 in 2005 and 20.7 in 2004. She became superintendent on July 1, 2005.] We were below the state and National Average. It is very difficult to raise it even by 1%. We've raised it by 2. Dr. Rizzi and I keep setting the standard higher. [INTERESTING COMMENT: How does a 2% raise in our ACT Scores correlate to her 80% raise in salary over the last 8 years? How will their "setting the standard higher" boost ACT Composite Scores?] Our goal right now is 23%. [CONFUSED: Does Fox plan to raise our ACT Scores by 23%?] 

Our dropout rate as of the first day of school was 1.98. If we had 1.98, we'd still be one of the lowest in the state. This will not remain the same. This is why you won't get a drop out rate this month. It always is high at the beginning of the year and then we get our kids back in September. And, we usually average, what Dr. Rizzi, 1.25 to 1.5? Which is phenomenal for a district of 11,600 without the early childhood kids. [NOT TRUE: Data obtained from DESE's website show's Fox's Dropout rates as follows:  2013 - 2.0%, 2012 - 1.8%, 2011 - 1.2%, 2010 - 1.2%, 2009 - 1.4%, 2008 - 1.6%, 2007 - 2.0%, 2006 - 3.6%, 2005 - 2.9%, 2004 - 3.5%. It appears as if Fox has been losing ground in this area over the last couple of years. Our board should take a look at Clayton, Francis Howell, Kirkwood, Ladue, Lindbergh, Mehlville, Parkway, Rockwood and Webster Groves for districts that have much lower dropout rates than Fox. Our superintendent's claims need to be backed up with data and not just words.] 

Our graduation rate is 93.9%. That does not mean that only 93% of our seniors graduate. They are basing that now on the kids that we get as freshman and if they finish all the way through with the Fox school district. Some of our demographics. K-12 we're 11,695 as of the first day and this may change. If as you noticed in our board materials, we are down about 80 kids. Hopefully that will change. With early childhood we gain anywhere between 200 and 400 children throughout the year. So really, we have over 12,000 students. We have 995 certified, 606 classified. We have 19 schools with 21 buildings. 

This sheet is telling. And, if you've ever read any of the articles I've written, we have shown this probably the last 5 or 6 years. [OOPS: Superintendent Critchlow's slide contains the same mistake that has been there for years. Her slide shows that Fox has 270 Administrators Per Student rather than Students Per Administrator. 270 Administrators Per Student would be a little top heavy administratively! No one has noticed this mistake for the last several years.] These are school districts around our area, probably all the way out to Jeff City that have been Distinction 13 years in a row. If you look at what we spend per pupil and what the rest of them that have been Distinction 13 years in a row spend per pupil, we are the lowest. [EXPENSIVE ADMINS: What Superintendent Critchlow fails to point out is the fact that Fox had the 2nd Highest Average Administrator Salary in the state last year for school districts that had more than one administrator. Fox's Average Administrator Salary was $125,569 for 39.5 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Administrators (2013 DESE data). Total Administrator Salary for 2013 was $4,959,956. Fox's Average Administrator Salary is $14,648 more than Parkway, $23,979 more than Wentzville, $24,117 more than Rockwood and $24,856 more than Mehlville. Fox's Average Administrator Salary is more than twice the median household income in our district. 

Could this be why Fox's administrator salary schedule was left out of the school board packets?]

And as I'm telling the teachers as we go through this, it's not because of myself, the board of education or the principals. It is the teachers in the classroom. Because when that door closes, we hope we've provided them the tools to make our students excel. [QUESTION: Does having enough books for all students in the class count towards having the tools to make our students excel?] And obviously if you look who we're going against and the amounts of money we spend, we do a fantastic job in educating our students.

This is the newest 2013 Annual Performance Report. This is MSIP 5. We used to be graded on 100 points. We are now graded on 140 and this is what I'm explaining to the staff. We ARE very proud of the 92.1%. I was attending and if you read the Post Dispatch earlier this week and they had so many schools highlighted. We were one of them they highlighted. [VERY MISLEADING: All schools in the St. Louis area were listed in the Post Dispatch article and all of the schools listed were highlighted. Superintendent Critchlow's statement was not false. But, it was very misleading. It seemed as if she was implying that the Post Dispatch was depicting Fox as an exception which was not true.] 

In addition, I was at a Jefferson County meeting and I shared this with all of the staff that I met with thus far. Jefferson County students are like building principals. They're like athletic coaches. Everybody is competitive. So, we decided lets go around the table and share our score. We were the highest in Jefferson County. [NOT TRUE: If you don't count Festus as being in Jefferson County then Fox would be the highest. Perhaps Festus wasn't at the meeting. But to tell the board that Fox was The Highest in Jefferson County after reading the article in the Post Dispatch is FALSE and MISLEADING! MO DESE shows Festus was ranked higher than Fox with a score of 96.4% compared to Fox's 92.1%. Her next statement was FALSE as well. None of the other school districts in Jefferson County had a score in the 70's and obviously Jefferson R-7 was NOT the only other district in the 90's. Was she stating this in order to justify the amount of salary the board is paying her? This simply confirms the fact that she is willing to mislead the board and the public. Making False Statements like these destroy her credibility and shows her lack of Integrity and lack of Honesty. It is not very representative of a National District of Character.] Everyone else was in the 70's or 80's. If you wanted to compare county to county, which is really the county we're in. And, the only other school district that was in the 90's was Jefferson R-7, but they have not had a fully accredited high school yet. Every year, you'll notice they keep adding high school. Great for Clint down there. They're doing a fantastic job. 

So, the five things that are really important, go back one Dr. Rizzi please. Um. As, you can see our academic achievement was 96.4. Our kids are getting a great education. The sub achievement is 89.3. We know we have areas we need to improve upon. We have College and Career Readiness and we have Attendance. Now, the state has frozen whatever accreditation you have at this point in 2013. It remains with you until 2015. So, we're accredited with distinction. We'll be accredited with distinction until 2015. In 2015, they start labeling again. It's either high achievement, achievement and I don't even bother to know the bottom two because Fox is never going to get there. And that's what I tell the teachers. And guess what? If we were accredited today, we would be high achievement. So, the two areas I'm going over with the staff are number three and number four. Look at our attendance. We only got 7.5%. College and Career Readiness, we can fix. And the difference with MSIP 5 and the rest of the MSIP is you have to show improvement. We can. We can still have really high scores, but if they don't improve or if our attendance doesn't improve, you don't earn the points. So attendance, we want to improve by 1%. 

College and Career Readiness is gonna be easy for us. There are more AP classes we can add and we can't wait to do that. [QUESTION: Why hadn't Fox done this years ago under her watch? This is related to the same problem that I have been pointing out to them for years regarding and that how low the Percentage of Graduates taking the ACT is in our district. Rockwood pays for each student to take the ACT test one time. You never know when a student may receive a scholarship based upon their ACT scores. Every student should have the opportunity to take the test.] So you add 2 or 4. Then the next year you add 8. Then you add 12. That one we can fix easier than our attendance. 

So, why does attendance matter? And this is what I put together for the staff. This is where I'm asking the staff. We need your help. We currently maintain a little under 95% attendance. When you think about that, that's pretty darn good. However, that 5% loss cost the district $3.8 million dollars a year and, if I tell the teacher, that's supplies we can put in the classroom. That's adding additional teachers. That's your raise. So, one hour of attendance and we're graded by hours is about $6 bucks, $5.75. When 200 students are absent first hour and having two high schools of 4,000 students, that happens. Right there you're losing $1000 dollars, almost $1200. If a student's absent all day in our school district, it costs about $40 bucks. Six hundred students absent all day is very feasible when you have 11,600 students. We're losing $22,000 a day. In two days that's another teacher. We can lower class size. So, what I'm asking the staff and they've had some great ideas. I need you to tell me how we can increase by just 1%. One percent will make us make $760,000 more. Just one percent. And you know when you ask, these teachers can tell you. And, they have some great ideas. I'll share a story. I was at Ridgewood Middle. She had no idea what my talk was gonna be about. And, she took over last January and apparently and I don't know if Ms. Pelster started this. But, the kids love, they love iPod Fridays. Well every week they're going to her saying can they have an iPod Friday, or smartphone. So, Ms. LaVanchy gets on there and she said at the end of August since all of you've been bugging me, if we have 98% attendance, I will allow you to bring in your iPod and your smartphones. We'll use them educationally. She's found what motivates her kids. So, I want to find what motivates all the other kids in all the other buildings. This is how we show the staff attendance matters. 

Going on with that and letting them know how important we think attendance is and APR. I just want to talk about where we're headed in education in the future and what our challenges are. Our challenges are right now, this year, are we did deficit spend in order to give raises this year. Everyone's aware of that. In addition to that these teachers are being thrown the Common Core, MSIP 5, End Of Course, MAP, and Teacher Evaluation. Here's one thing I tell the teachers. I grew up at Rockport. They put a hundred of us in the cafeteria and we took the Iowa Basic Skills Test. Then when I became a teacher, we took the MMAT. Then, after I became a principal there was the MAP. Now there's the End Of Course, there's Common Core. But you know what, that doesn't worry me. Fox teachers, Fox staff has always found a way to make our students do well on less money and this is what I'm out there telling the teachers. Now, the Principals may cringe a little with me because, I'm saying guys don't worry, I know you're going to perform. 

But, we have two key areas that we need to focus on as a staff, attendance with the students, attendance with the staff and our health insurance. We probably have one of the best health insurances going. We pay full board pay. But as you know, we all made the decision to deficit spend. I tell them the story. I have a son that has epilepsy. I go to get his medicine. It's like a $1.23 and I tell this every time to every staff. It's shocking to me. That can't be right. I don't take the best insurance. I take the second one because I think it's the better one. And so what I'm telling them is we're going to put a health insurance committee together. We're going to look at insurance. We're going to want their input. But, you know if I had to pay $10 or $20 for Jimmy's medicine, I'm OK with that. [COMMENT: With a 2012-2013 salary of $246,824, I'm sure that raising her son's medicine cost to $10 or $20 per refill is probably OK with her. The school board has raised her salary so much over the last 8 years that everyone in the community is in disbelief when they learn how much she is making. The difference between her salary and 99.9% of the rest of the citizens in the Fox C-6 district shows how out of touch our school board is with the community. Yes. SHE is probably OK with having to pay a little more.] We need to come up with ways that if everybody pays a little and it affects no one greatly. They're on board with that. That's we're trying, that's the message we're trying to send. 

So, we're asking for them. What are incentives that will make you come to school? What are ideas that you have? And I can tell you, but I've only been through half the schools right now. One school had a great idea. But, their idea was, if you, if we have 100% attendance, and one thing I want to do is, spend a little money to make a little money. So, show the next slide if you would Dr. Rizzi. And I'm sorry if I had my back to you. Um. Last year, we spent $1.6 Million dollars on substitutes. Yes. We grant teachers and aides and all those so many days, for their benefits. But, I said how many of you really, on the day that you needed a mental health day, or went shopping, or went deer hunting, could you really have been there? 

And the other thing that we talked about is let's give an incentive to the teachers. What if we gave them a $100 bucks for perfect attendance. Um. So, we're throwing ideas around but I want the teachers to tell me, what motivates you to come to school? So, I've been to most of the middle schools and they raised their hand and the principal said at Antonia Middle , I'll take five because they have hours. If they have perfect attendance, I'll take 5 hours of their classes. Um. So then I, I took that to Fox Middle after Antonia said it and he upped it to 6 and by the time I got to Seckman Middle it was 7. It would be great to give teachers a day off free. But, it kind of circumvents the whole process. But, one teacher came up with what I thought was really clever, but she wanted to allow us them not to have to come in on a PDC day if they had perfect attendance. (laughter heard) Which it really would save for subs and I thought wow, that's thinking out of the box. However, we value PDC, so. 

But one had a great idea too, uh, let us go to lunch. Teachers can never go to lunch. They get 30 minutes. Let the principal or whoever cover their class and go to lunch with a co-worker, to wherever it may be. So, we're look at those ideas to save money. One thing we are doing. We know you have to replace teachers. You have to replace bus drivers. I mean there's just no way out of that. But, there are some things out there that cannot be replaced if it's a one time day sub and we can save about $600,000 or $700,000. If you have four custodians at night and one's out, your buildings gonna  have three. And, the trash will get emptied and the bathrooms will get cleaned unless it's long term. So, we are looking at every way not to deficit spend. This is what I'm sharing with the staff. Um. The next slide is the year before that which is $1.5 Million, which is pretty close to the slide before it. 

And then I kind of um, switched focus because I wanted to talk to them about where are we headed in education as a school district, as a state, you know in the nation. And these are just some things that I found really interesting. Not in our school district, but in the United States. If you have an entering freshman, all our freshman, they're the most racially and ethnically diverse group in the United States. They grew up without Romper Room and I think we've probably had some teachers grow up without Romper Room and I tell them that and they all laugh. They've never seen an actual airline ticket. If you have kids. I think, my kids think my ticket is a boarding pass. Pretty much it is right now. Most of them never had a pencil library card. They see no use for encyclopedias, library terms such as the dewey decimal system, micro fiche are likely greek to them. The advent of smartphones and tablets has further facilitated their appetite for instant gratification. It's facilitated everyone's appetite, including mine. Having the website out there and yes we were new in starting it and we might not have everything perfect. But, honestly I can agree with you. That's the society that we're in. We want that information and we want it right now. Well think about our kids and who are better than us at it. Um. 

The next slide, they've always. They think there have been blue M&M's. They do not think of Amazon as a river. History's always had a channel. There's no need for TV, rooms. TV's can be watched anywhere. I didn't realize this until on of my sons went away to college called. Wanted the DirecTV number and password. I'm like what are you talking about? Apparently right now if you belong to DirecTV or anything else and you have an iPhone or an iPad, it can be watched anywhere at anytime. I had no clue. 

But, the most intriguing thing I think and most people are never going to be able to say this. Their lives have spanned 3 decades, two centuries, two millenniums. Few people in industry have been able to claim such a feat. So, with that being said and what we know about our students. This requires a strategic transformation, I had the opportunity to hear the Assistant U.S. Department, Secretary of the U.S. Department of ED. And, she had, she just had a compelling thing, "Prepare the students of today for a world that is yet to be created, for jobs yet to be invented and for technologies yet undreamed." And I know that we have a lot of people in this audience that work in this technology and educators are the worst and she agrees. We need to prepare the kids for the future that are in 9th grade to walk out of here and college and by our state testing and the tests we have to give we're truly just preparing them for the present. We're preparing them for a test they have to take in 6 or 8 months. Also, I challenge and I'm challenging the staff to ponder these questions. How can schools meet our kids in their world? How can we redefine learning so that it's not limited to the classroom, bell schedules, pre-determined acceptance tests, etc? How can we keep them tuned in and on? And, how can we give credit for learning outside the classroom? 

I had the chance to hear a superintendent speak from North Carolina. 75,000 kids in his school district. [INFO: He is from the Wake County Public School System. Last year the Wake County superintendent's salary was $250,000 compared to Superintendent Critchlow's salary of $246,824. The Wake County superintendent was responsible for a $1.3 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET compared to Fox's $135 MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET. Wake County has 170 schools and 75,000 students compared to Fox's 19 schools and less than 12,000 students. Critchlow's salary appears to be incredibly out of line when comparing responsibilities between the two superintendents. 

Is the lack of transparency in the Fox C-6 District allowing our school board to overpay Critchlow?

Compare the openness and transparency of Wake County to that of Fox C-6 by reviewing Wake County Finance webpage. Wake County's website has School Budgets and Finance Reports dating back to 2007 as well as their 2013-2014 proposed budget.
Their 2012-2013 Adopted Budget is 338 pages.

Can you find any of those documents on Fox's website? Fox C-6 taxpayers should be requesting the same information. It seems to be keeping Wake County Public Schools in check. Transparency is everything!] Five of their high schools partnered with a Junior College and those kids are graduating with an Associates Degree and their High School Diploma at the same time. I know we have students that can do that. We send our students to Jeffco for the vo-tech. Why are we not sending our students for that associates degree? So, I called Jeffco. What are you going to offer our students so that they can compete in that world that everybody knows is out there? I mean, my kids think that the Internet has always existed and there are so many things that have changed. And, like I've said, I know that we have so many kids that can do this. So right now, we are going to try to partner with Jeffco to see if we can have kids not only graduate with an associates, but graduate with their high school diploma. 

So, relevance makes rigor. I like this quote, I wanted to share it with the staff, "Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve." And then we threw a little fun in here and this is truly what we think. When I think about educators, they're super heros. And, depending on what building I'm in, I call the principals Superman or the principals Wonder Woman. I'm also telling them we are all frustrated in education. We're being asked to do huge transformations. But, it's also an opportunity for our teachers to be super heros for our kids. And then this one I just love. And, and, we typed on all these things. But, you know what? On any given day, I'm pretty sure that's how we feel in our office. I'm pretty sure that's how the teachers feel. You're going to throw something else at us. But guess what? They are super heros when they keep up with the demands. So, this is what I leave them with. My wish for them as we continue our important work. Be extraordinary. Our kids deserve our best, to be their best. So, this is what I've been presenting to the staff to let them know the challenges we're facing and hopefully they're forward thinking."

Fox C-6: More "Memory Holes" In August 2013 Board Meeting Packet

It took nearly 3 years of requests to our school board to get school board packets for Fox C-6 posted on the district website. They were first posted on the district website in February 2013. See my February 23, 2013 post regarding Progress Is Being Made Towards Transparency! Since then, I've made numerous requests for the district to post the board packets dating back to the 2008-2009 school year on the district website. So far, the board has not responded to my request nor have they posted the packets. Posting those packets would correspond with the school board meeting minutes that already exist on the district website.

Why should the district post the older board packets? It's a very simple fact. The community needs to do its own oversight of the district and the school board.

The school board has been failing to do their job for nearly 10 years and has been relying on our Superintendent for answers. Therein lies the problem. Our Superintendent is prone to providing false or misleading information or only half-truths. She will say anything in hopes that you will believe her. I have documented this problem many times. Our Superintendent's friends or "inner circle" as some people call them will write to the local newspapers or in online forums stating that my information is false or that my information is only from some "select facts". The research I do is very thorough and well documented. Documentation obtained from federal agencies and from MO DESE is irrefutable. If a mistake is made in my documentation, it will be corrected. So far, no one from the district or the school board has asked for any corrections. They are simply hoping that you don't come across this information. Our superintendent sent out Cease and Desist letters to individuals in our district in an effort to deter people from informing the public about problems in the district. You need to know the Truth and the Whole Truth.

Just for your information, the last state audit of the Fox C-6 school district was in March 2002. It might be a good time for a state audit considering the limited amount of documentation that the district has been willing to supply to the public. A state audit is much more thorough than the annual audit done by the firm the district hires to review their financial records. To no one's surprise the district receives glowing reviews on their local audit. You can find the last state audit report here:

March 2002 State Audit of Fox C-6 School District

You can find a copy of the June 30, 2011 Fox C-6 Audited Financial Statements performed by the Daniel Jones company here for comparison:

June 30, 2011 Fox C-6 Financial Statements Audit

This is OUR school district. We elect people from our community to sit on the school board and watch over the district. It IS the school board's job to make sure that our Superintendent is doing her job and that our district IS following state and federal laws and our school board policies and regulations. If that doesn't happen and no one is watching out for the community, things will happen that shouldn't and no one will know a thing. That means that your tax dollars might not be getting used as well as they should in educating our children. Without our oversight, it makes it very easy for someone to take advantage of the system. This has already happened many times. 

Our district spent $135,935,354 in 2012. How well was that money spent? If you don't watch over things, you may end up not knowing what happened for years and by then it's too late. This recently happened in the Rockwood school district when the State Auditor discovered that the contractor where a former school board president worked had been inadvertently overpaid by $1.2 million dollars over the course of several years. Then it was determined that the district would not be able to recover the funds. Do you want the same thing to happen to your tax dollars?

Our Superintendent can tell you how great a job our school board does of watching over your money. But, should you believe what she tells you?

August 2013 Board Meeting Packet
Everyone in our community is very aware of the fact that the district has had several recent issues which didn't look good for our district, the school board or our community. The school board and the community are responsible for making sure that our superintendent is doing her job and is acting responsibly. If our Superintendent is withholding or not reporting information or is making it difficult or expensive to obtain, then you should be very concerned as to what is going on in our school district.

I highly recommend that you go to the Fox C-6 website and download the August 27, 2013 School Board Meeting Packet. It appears that the new website is allowing direct file links to documents such as the board meeting packets. So, you can click on the link above to download the file. The previous website didn't allow for direct links to many files on the Edline district website.

Below I have gone through and highlighted some of the important things that stood out in the most recent board meeting packet.

Missing Administrator Salary Schedule
This latest board packet is 332 pages long. It contains the Salary Schedule for Teachers and Classified Staff. However, it does not contain the Salary Schedule for our Administrators. It's quite convenient of the district to leave out the salary schedule for administrators. That would have given the public a clue as to how much the school board agreed to pay our Superintendent for the 2013-2014 school year. Our board paid our Superintendent $246,824 for the 2012-2013 school year. Our board members need to be made aware of the fact that the Administrator Salary Schedule is missing. It needs to be made available to the public for review. Remember, you are paying their salaries.

There are a lot of issues that need to be discussed and resolved with our school board regarding the information (or lack thereof "memory holes") that is being made available to the public for review. You probably never thought much about what goes on in our school district. But, when you start to see a lot of waste and issues that need to be addressed, you start reviewing things more closely. As many people have stated, there are many problems and what was highlighted by Fox 2 News was just the tip of the iceberg.

Salary Increases for Classified Staff of 2.5%

How is it that the salary schedule increases listed in the latest school board meeting packet show a 2.5% increase for many of the Classified positions while Superintendent Critchlow received a nearly 8% increase from 2012 to 2013? As you review the Classified Salary Schedules, take note as to how many of them state that there is a 2.5% Increase from the 2012-2013 school year to the 2013-2014 school year. Then read across the salary schedule and compare the salary amounts between 2013 and 2014. Either the description is incorrect for many of the entries or the formula for the increases are incorrect because many of the salary amounts are decreased. The spreadsheet file name at the bottom of the Salary Schedules show them as being C:\Users\Scott\Documents\Classified 13-14 salary schedule 062513.xls.

Memory Holes in Board Meeting Minutes

There are "Memory Holes" in the latest school board meeting minutes. At the June 25, 2013 school board meeting, I asked our school board about the open Resolution Agreement with ED OCR and the USDA Final Agency Decision ruling that was handed down to the district on August 18, 2011 which found Fox C-6 and Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Non-Compliant with Section 504, ADA and the ADAAA. Any reference to those questions were left out of the June 25, 2013 school board meeting minutes contained in the August 2013 board meeting packet. How convenient for our Superintendent to leave out that information and hide it from the public. Your Superintendent's job is to keep the public informed. Not misinformed!

This has been an ongoing problem ever since I first spoke at a school board meeting in December 2010. The board meeting minutes for that meeting documented my Public Comments as "Concerns within the district.". I wrote to our school board and asked that my comments be documented in more detail because the public has no way of knowing what problems were addressed to the board when they're only listed as "Concerns within the district." Superintendent Brown responded to my request to the school board via email. She informed me that the school board secretary had called the Missouri School Board Association the next day and was told that our board meeting minutes met state law. Our Superintendent DOES NOT want the public to know what is going on in the district if it is going to reflect poorly on her or the school board. That's probably why our school board meetings aren't being audio or video recorded. I have asked numerous times for this to be done as well and have never received a response. That should be a "red flag" for the community.

Bill Payments Review

This month the school board is being asked to approve $10,168,423.25. Every once in a while there are checks that stand out when reviewing the bill payments that the school board is asked to approve each month at the board meeting. This month was no exception. Perhaps seeing some of the following Bill Payments below will prompt you to start reviewing what our school board approves each month at school board meetings in a quick vote of approval.

Checks to Kelly Nash?
There were two payments to board member Linda Nash's daughter in law who was hired in November 2012 as the district's new Food Nutrition Services Director for $65,000. The two checks to Kelly Nash are flagged with asterisks. Since Linda Nash is a school board member and is related to Kelly Nash, she must abstain from voting and approving the bill payments.

The checks being presented to Kelly Nash are as follows:
07/31/2013 - Nash, Kelly D *** -     $37.55
08/08/2013 - Nash, Kelly D *** - $2744.00

What do you think the $2744 check to Kelly Nash was for?

I can venture to guess that the $37.55 check was for mileage reimbursement. The new Bill Payments report DOES NOT provide any detail regarding what the payments are for like the old Bill Payments Report. This will need to be corrected! The old report would include comments such as Mileage Reimbursement or Legal Fees, etc.

Motivational Speaker Flip Flippen Cost - $10,000

When I first saw Superintendent Dianne Critchlow tweet on August 13, 2013, "Flip Flippen, New York Times Best seller & motivational speaker, addressed the entire Fox C-6 staff to kick off the new year.", I immediately wondered how much that cost the district. Well in the Bill Payments from the August Board Packet, there is a check dated  07/25/2013 for $10,000 to The Flippen Group. I certainly hope everyone was very motivated for that amount of money.

07/25/2013 - The Flippen Group - $10,000.00

Who approved the spending of $10,000 to motivate district staff?

I would bet that hiring a new Superintendent would have proven to be Much More Motivating for our teachers and staff instead of paying $10,000 for Flip Flippen to "address the entire Fox C-6 staff to kick off the new year".

I wonder how much copy paper that would have purchased for our school district?

Credit Card Payments Without Details
This is one of those big checks to pay off a credit card. Certainly it is legitimate and the school gets a percentage of their money back in "cash back" offers. However, Fox doesn't include the credit card statements in their board meeting packets like they do in other school districts. So, you really don't know what the payments were actually paying for. Fox needs to include a copy of the credit card statements in our board meeting packets. The school board has been approving payments like this for years. This needs to be documented much more thoroughly.

07/11/2013 - SAM'S CLUB DISCOVER -  $11,027.10
07/16/2013 - CARD SERVICES              -   $11,290.59
08/13/2013 - CARD SERVICES              - $118,925.73
07/23/2013 - AMERICAN EXPRESS     - $233,231.50

Missing 2013-2014 School Budget
At the June 2013 school board meeting, each member of the school board was given a copy of the 2013-2014 School Budget for review and approval. After the meeting, I asked Debbie Davis the school board secretary and custodian of records to post the 2013-2014 budget on the district website. She told me it would be a few weeks before she could get to it if she was allowed to post it. Well, the budget hasn't been posted and it wasn't included in the board meeting packets like it should have been since it was provided to the school board members at the board meeting.

Fox C-6 hasn't been publishing school budgets on the district website like they do in many other school districts of our size. Why is that? The district doesn't want you to know how they are spending your money. If you knew, you would start asking questions and that would lead to more accountability. If the public can be kept in the dark, that makes it all the easier let money slip through the cracks. As I documented in a previous post about the June 25, 2013 board meeting, Rockwood does an excellent job of documenting their school finances for their patrons. Fox needs to have the same. Our superintendent and school board should be able to provide the same documentation as Rockwood considering that we are paying our superintendent more than Rockwood's superintendent.

Fox C-6 Only Ranked 173rd in State - Ranked 21st Among Local School Districts Under New State Standards!

Fox C-6 Only Ranked 173rd in state of Missouri out of 560 schools according to latest MSIP 5 Annual Performance Report! However, Superintendent Critchlow was the 4th Highest Paid Superintendent in the state for the 2012-2013 School Year.

This report should be a wake up call for our community. We have been told for years how great a job our district has been doing by our superintendent with very little evidence to support her claims. This latest report isn't just about MAP scores. It now includes college and career readiness. In a prior post, I pointed out that Fox is in the bottom 25% of the state for the Percentage of Graduates Taking the ACT. This latest report takes that into account as well as the district's Composite ACT Score.

We as a community want our students and our district to do well. Fox is not a poor performing district. However, it's not one of the top schools that Superintendent Critchlow has been overly touting it to be. Her salary however has apparently been increased by our school board based upon those exaggerated claims. Now that Missouri DESE has calculated a "letter grade" for each school district in the state, it's much easier to see how Fox really compares to other districts. The Show Me Institute addressed this in an article stating that letter grades help address transparency since it has been very difficult until now to see how your school district compares to other districts.

Now that you are able to compare Fox to other districts in the state, do you have a different opinion as to how well our district is doing compared to what our Superintendent has been telling you?

Do you think our Superintendent is being paid too much money to run our school district based on Fox's recent ranking in the state?

So, how did this happen? Fox has a list of accomplishments on the district website. Based upon that list of accomplishments, Fox appears to be doing really well. After all, Fox earned a Perfect Score year after year on Missouri's Annual Performance Report since Critchlow was promoted to Superintendent. Here are some of those accomplishments listed on Fox's website are:

• The District has received Distinction in Performance from the state of Missouri for 10 years in a row
• Fox C-6 School District named as a National District of Character, 2009
• Perfect Score on Missouri's Annual Performance Report (APR) 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
• Lone Dell Elementary named as a National Blue Ribbon School
• Lone Dell Elementary named as a Missouri Gold Star School
• Several schools named as DESE Top 10 Schools for academic achievement

One of the most touted accomplishments in at Fox is that the district is a "National District of Character". It can be found on the district's website and nearly every piece of paper sent home to parents. It's on the cover sheet of most school board documents. Character education is a good thing. Building self-esteem for every student is a good thing as well. However, touting it so heavily loses its luster quickly when district administrators and some school board members don't seem to follow many of the Character Education traits. The traits that appear to be the least followed are Honesty, Integrity, Respect, Service and Responsibility. These traits are imprinted as watermarks on district letter head. Those words become meaningless when you see how certain individuals conduct themselves at board meetings, parent meetings, in the media and in their correspondences. It's time for these words to be removed from many of our documents as they aren't worth the ink required to print them. Perhaps in the future under new leadership they can regain their worth. But until then, they should be removed.

For more information on MSIP 5 and the new Performance Report visit Missouri DESE's website here:

Missouri DESE 2013 MSIP 5 Report Info

Missouri DESE 2013 Annual Performance Report (PDF)

With limited information and limited oversight by our school board, the board has nearly doubled Superintendent Critchlow's salary since she was promoted to Superintendent in 2005.

Can Fox C-6 taxpayers and Missouri taxpayers get a refund on our Superintendent's salary?

Tuesday August 27, 2013 is the next school board meeting. This would be a very good time to go to a school board meeting and ask our school board some questions. After all, the school board works for the community and the Superintendent is hired by the school board. It's not the other way around. Remember that you will need to fill out a Public Comments form in order to speak at the board meeting and it must be handed in prior to 6:45PM.

The Rockwood School District now has open discussions with the community prior to their regular school board meetings in addition to the Public Comments session. Fox C-6 needs to have similar meetings so the community can discuss with our board members that represent us what our concerns are within the district! After all, they work for us.

You can read more about Missouri DESE's new public school system rating system in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and see where Fox ranks among the other schools.

Gone is that "Perfect Score" claim when Fox met 14 of 14 standards. There is now a much finer grading system.

New Ratings for Missouri's Public Schools 

Offer a Broader Picture of Student Performance

If Superintendent Critchlow was paid according to our district rank among the LOCAL districts, that would have placed her salary at $192,238 instead of the $246,824 she was paid for the 2012-2013 school year!

Fox C-6 Superintendent 4th Highest Paid

In Missouri for 2012-2013

Everyone person I speak with about the problems in our district are always shocked to learn how much our school board has been paying our Superintendent. This is a systemic problem across the state. However, our school board has not been doing its due diligence and is not being fiscally responsible with respect to central office administration pay.

It's time to tell your friends and neighbors to contact our school board members and let them know that this is completely unacceptable. Our school district needs new leadership and a new pay scale for our central office administrators. There's no way that our school board can justify the outrageous salaries when school performance doesn't match up to those of other districts.

Post Dispatch Interactive Map of 2013 School Scores

Local School District Rankings Under

Missouri DESE's New Rating System

School District	Rating
Brentwood	100.00%
Franklin County	100.00%
Strain-Japan	100.00%
Parkway	99.60%
Lindbergh	99.30%
Clayton	98.90%
Ladue	98.90%
Kirkwood	98.20%
Webster Groves	97.50%
Festus	96.40%
Francis Howell	96.40%
Wentzville	96.40%
Spring Bluff	96.30%
Lonedell	95.60%
Silex	95.40%
New Haven	95.00%
Affton	94.30%
Ft. Zumwalt	92.90%
Rockwood	92.90%
Mehlville	92.50%
Fox C-6	92.10%
Orchard Farm	91.80%
Washington	91.10%
Wright City	91.10%
Jefferson Co.	90.40%
Elsberry	89.30%
Valley Park	89.30%
Troy	88.90%
Hancock Place	88.60%
Maplewood-Richmond Heights	88.60%
St. Clair	88.60%
Crystal City	88.20%
Hillsboro	88.20%
Winfield	88.20%
Northwest	87.50%
Sunrise	87.50%
Meramec Valley	87.10%
St. Charles	86.80%
Sullivan	86.80%
Windsor	85.70%
Grandview	85.40%
Hazelwood	85.40%
Dunklin	84.60%
Pattonville	82.90%
Desoto	81.10%
Bayless	79.30%
Warren Co.	76.80%
Union	75.70%
Ritenour	71.80%
Ferguson-Florissant	69.30%
University City	66.80%
Jennings	65.70%
Riverview Gardens	28.60%
St. Louis City	24.60%
Normandy	11.10%

Willful Blindness: How Fox C-6 School Board Leaders Have Turned a Blind Eye!

A new TED Talk by Margaret Heffernan truly hits home as to what has been going on in the Fox C-6 School District for quite some time. Her TED Talk is titled, The Dangers of Willful Blindness. She has a very powerful message with regard to Willful Blindness and how it can harm a community or an institution such as a school system.

So, what is Willful Blindness?

Margaret Heffernan describes it very well at 5:50 into her TED Talk presentation:

This wasn't ignorance. It was willful blindness. Willful blindness is a legal concept which means, if there's information that you could know and you should know but you somehow manage not to know, the law deems that you're willfully blind. You have chosen not to know. There's a lot of willful blindness around these days.

Margaret Heffernan: The Dangers of Willful Blindness

How true her statements are about how our school board has been Willfully Blind for quite some time. When school leaders turn a blind eye and willfully choose not to know, they can do a lot of harm to the community and to their own reputation. Willful blindness also applies to the community for not speaking up about the problems that they see in our school district that have been going on for a number of years. I know that most people who work for the school district are too afraid to say anything for fear of losing their jobs. And, people in our community are afraid to say anything for fear of retaliation. Ignoring these problems has kept our school district from achieving the academic success that many other school districts in the area have achieved such as Rockwood, Parkway, Lindbergh, Clayton and Ladue.

When our school leaders are spending a lot of time and money trying to get around the law, they aren't doing the jobs they were hired and paid to do. In turn, our students and children aren't being provided the same opportunities that students are given in other districts that have higher academic achievement. It's our job as parents and patrons of the school district to always be watching and learning what other school districts are doing and let our school board know how they are doing. We can't let our board count on getting the information only from our superintendent. She has told me several times that they don't do what I say they do in other districts. You need to go and look for yourself.  Learn what they are doing in other districts. Share that information and work towards bringing a positive change to our district. Visit their websites and download their documents. Find out how open they are with their parents and community. Our school board and administrators don't even take the time to check our own district website to see if our documents are even there, if the spelling or grammar is correct, or if our calendar days add up on our district calendars. Our totals didn't add up, and after I informed them the district removed the totals from the calendar.

The public has been told numerous times that our superintendent and central office administrators and school board are doing such a great job without providing any substantial data to back up those claims. It's all about generalities. That's why it's important that you speak up and ask why isn't Fox achieving the same level of academic achievements and accolades as other districts. Fox brags about being a National District of Character on almost every document it sends out. Yet, you don't see that near as often at other National District of Characters such as Lindbergh. There you will see some great academic achievements. You need a leader that will inspire. Not one that will threaten you for voicing your concerns. Ask our school board why they are paying our superintendent more money than the superintendents of the schools that have achieved much higher academic accomplishments than Fox.

Don't be Willfully Blind as to what is going on!
Our school board has also been Willfully Blind to information that has been provided to them numerous times over the past 5 years and yet decided to do nothing. Our school board allowed our superintendent to spend $510,473 in legal fees over the past 5 years as she and school district attorneys have taken every possible effort to get around the law.

Finally, the USDA after giving Fox C-6 and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MO DESE) more than 2 years to comply with their August 18, 2011 Final Agency Decision has finally stepped in and put an end to their charades and legal delays. It's good to see the USDA finally stepping in and enforcing the law. Superintendent Dianne Critchlow and Assistant Superintendent Dan Baker never mentioned the fact that the school district was denied their appeal of the USDA Final Agency Decision on August 15, 2012 and was given a 30 day notice to comply or have the ruling handed over to the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Baker also never mentioned the fact that all of the recent changes made by the district were the result of MO DESE telling the district that they had to comply with Section 504 law because MO DESE was told by the USDA that they had to ensure that Fox complied with the law because the USDA gives the state a lot of money for the school lunch program.

It's been amazing to see the 180 degree turnaround by both our school district and MO DESE since the new USDA National Director for Civil Rights for Food Nutrition Services told the state that they must comply with their Regulations and Guidelines.

The school district's legal counsel has been stating for years that they don't have to follow USDA Regulations and Guidelines because they aren't law. Well, they are the interpretation of the law and things have changed! There hasn't been a USDA National Director for Civil Rights for Food Nutrition Services for more than 2 years. Therefore rulings weren't being handled as vigorously as they could have he said. The new National Director for Civil Rights is now very much engaged and will be working to ensure that both our state and our school district becomes compliant with Section 504 law and the USDA Regulations and Guidelines.

Because our school board has been Willfully Blind and looked the other way for the past 5 years, it has cost Fox C-6 taxpayers a lot of money. The arrogance of our superintendent and other administrators and school district attorneys allowed them to believe that their wrong doings would never catch up with them. Problems that have been going on for nearly a decade in our state are finally been reigned in. These changes will also be seen on a national level as well. The USDA is working on rewriting its Regulations and Guidelines so they are less ambiguous so attorneys find fewer ways to get around the law.

One of the important points made by Margaret Heffernan in her TED Talk is what she says she learned from the people she interviewed in doing her research on Willful Blindness:

What the research shows is that some people are blind out of fear. They're afraid of retaliation. And some people are blind because they think, well, seeing anything is just futile. Nothing's ever going to change. If we make a protest, if we protest against the Iraq War, nothing changes, so why bother? Better not to see this stuff at all.

And the recurrent theme that I encounter all the time is people say, "Well, you know, the people who do see, they're whistleblowers, and we all know what happens to them." So there's this profound mythology around whistleblowers which says, first of all, they're all crazy. But what I've found going around the world and talking to whistleblowers is, actually, they're very loyal and quite often very conservative people. They're hugely dedicated to the institutions that they work for, and the reason that they speak up, the reason they insist on seeing, is because they care so much about the institution and want to keep it healthy. 

And the other thing that people often say about whistleblowers is, "Well, there's no point, because you see what happens to them. They are crushed. Nobody would want to go through something like that." And yet, when I talk to whistleblowers, the recurrent tone that I hear is pride.

It has been a long 5 years dealing with an arrogant superintendent and an unresponsive school board. We contacted the school board back in April 2010 and received no response. Then we contacted the board in January 2012 after the USDA issued its Final Agency Decision in August 2011 and received no response. Then we contacted the board in July 2012 only to receive a response from the school district attorney stating that the district had appealed the USDA's Final Agency Decision and that was the last time the district would respond. Then in August 2012, the district sent a Cease and Desist letter that again reiterated that the school district had already resolved the matter. However, this letter was sent after the district had been denied their appeal and had been given a 30 day notice to comply or have the matter handed over to the U.S. Department of Justice. It certainly appears that the Fox C-6 School Board has been practicing Willful Blindness.

At 11:45 into Margaret Heffernan's presentation, she speaks about the freedom to write and publish without fear of censorship. Superintendent Critchlow has used taxpayer dollars in an attempt to keep parents and patrons in our district from speaking up about issues that need to be addressed by our school board by sending out Cease and Desist letters. She has created "memory holes" in school board meeting minutes by leaving out any details of Public Comments that she finds unfavorable for her or the school board. Our school board has been Willfully Blind on this matter as well by approving the minutes with Public Comments documented only as "concerns within the district". Writing to our school board concerning this practice resulted in a response from Superintendent Critchlow stating that the minutes met state law. As a taxpayer, you are not being allowed to know what is going on within our district. This violates school board policies. As Margaret Heffernan states below, those of us that are working to right the wrongs in our district are very determined and persistent despite our Superintendent's retaliatory comments and abuse of power.

We all enjoy so many freedoms today, hard-won freedoms: the freedom to write and publish without fear of censorship, a freedom that wasn't here the last time I came to Hungary; a freedom to vote, which women in particular had to fight so hard for; the freedom for people of different ethnicities and cultures and sexual orientation to live the way that they want. But freedom doesn't exist if you don't use it, and what whistleblowers do, and what people like Gayla Benefield do is they use the freedom that they have. And what they're very prepared to do is recognize that yes, this is going to be an argument, and yes I'm going to have a lot of rows with my neighbors and my colleagues and my friends, but I'm going to become very good at this conflict. I'm going to take on the naysayers, because they'll make my argument better and stronger. I can collaborate with my opponents to become better at what I do. These are people of immense persistence, incredible patience, and an absolute determination not to be blind and not to be silent.

Our Superintendent and school board are now having to answer to a federal agency and possibly to the Department of Justice for their past actions. It is impossible to keep the facts and the truth from the public forever. It has taken an enormous amount of persistence and patience to get to this point. So, it is very rewarding to see the USDA finally taking steps to correct things not only in our school district but also in our state. The USDA has informed the district that what they were doing was "not legal". It was also good to hear the National Director of Civil Rights tell me that our superintendent was incorrect in saying that the matter with the USDA was "in litigation" at the June 2013 school board meeting. He said in order for it to be "in litigation", someone would have had to file a lawsuit and none have been filed. It's just another nice way for our Superintendent to keep information from the public by saying things are "in litigation". This is another Willful Blindness that our school board continually practices by ignoring or looking the other way to all of the false and misleading statements Superintendent Critchlow makes all the time.


Margaret Heffernan also wrote an article that I highly recommend reading which was published in the Ivey Business Journal titled:

Willful Blindness: When A Leader Turns a Blind Eye

This article discusses why leaders choose to ignore things that need to be seen. The chief among the culprits is power. The other theme that you will notice that plays a huge problem with our school district leadership is something you will most likely notice about our school leadership:

Leaders inhabit a bubble of power, and they are both mentally and physically cut off from the reality most people would recognize. Reality is the obligation to tell the truth, “the reality most people would recognize” is the imperative, if they witness improper or unlawful behavior, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This author explains why leaders resist the imperative and how they – and we – can avoid the temptation.

It is one thing to just throw out general statements of success and achievement as our superintendent often does. It is another to be able to back up those statements and claims with hard data such as MAP scores and ACT Composite Scores and Percentage of Students taking the ACT. That is something that Fox just can't compare yet to those other districts. Yet her salary for last year made her the 4th highest paid public school superintendent in the state of Missouri.

Our school board takes advantage of the Willful Blindness of the community by not publishing data on the district website such as school budgets, audio or video recordings of school board meetings or prior years school board packets. Superintendent Critchlow doesn't want the community to have this information because it exposes things that she and the district simply don't want you to know. If you don't know about these things, you won't be asking questions. That's how our superintendent has been able to keep her job thus far! Maybe you should ask our school board a few questions to see what they have to say about how much money they've spent on legal fees over the last 5 years. I have. I asked Dan Smith last December about this issue after the school board meeting.  I still haven't received a response!